[UK-CONTEST] CQWW SSB GM5X SOAB

[Kerr, Prof. K.M.]

I had to miss CQWW SSB, and CW, last year so was really determined to make it on this year. Station maintenance had once more been rather neglected and a few jobs were really only completed at the last minute. As always I had to wait until the farmer was finished in the field for the winter before putting up my beverages. I replaced a number of feeders including a long run to the beverages with Cellflex, but all the antennas were the same as before. The T2X on the 20m 4el monobander had been sticking and I never got round to looking into that problem. Fingers crossed.

The week prior to the contest was not too hectic (a relative term these days) but a trip down to Manchester on the Friday before was unavoidable. Got home 9pm. Wx terrible – cannot raise ‘second direction’ tribander (C3) safely on mast with gin pole (or whatever I am supposed to call it!).

I was to use my SCC, GM5X.

I started on 40m. While there was plenty of EU on a busy band – MUF obviously higher than last few years – there was very little for me to NA. Later 80m was reasonable but 160m was terrible and remained so all the way up to SR. I had a nice opening to NA after my SR on 80m and stayed there quite late. I went to 40m in the hope of a NA run but neither it, nor much else in the way of 3 pointers materialized. Still, at this stage I had a very healthy QSO total, much more than in previous years. 20m was incredibly noisy on Sat am and JA or mults were not much in evidence but I was quite late in starting the 20/15m morning duty (perhaps too late), partly because I had to go out and raise and secure the C3 mast. A few signals on 10m to very limited areas like the Balkans or UA3/6 plus an occasional African signal (ZS, V5, 5R8). Sat pm to North America was quite good on 20 and 15. I made two SA QSOs on 10m. 15 then 20m died on me quite fast and 40 and 80 were a struggle on Sat evening – still no run to NA on 40m.

Around midnight my second radio amp blew / flashed over and went QRT. I am not a very proficient SO2R operator but use it a lot to pass mults around the bands when possible. This had been moderately successful on Saturday though I had, it seemed, a lot of failed passes or ‘refusals’ this year. Losing this possibility on Sunday was bad for morale and although I had lasted surprisingly well physically up to this point, I really took a crash and had to QRT for my usual 1.5 hour sleep an hour early at around 0030. I was wrecked and in no fit state to start messing with amplifiers. I felt terrible when I work and had to sleep a bit more so ended up not getting back on until a little after 0400.

The Challenger II was not fixable quickly – seems to be a grid fault (anyone had this problem?) so it was one radio on Sunday.

160m was better on Sunday morning, there were a few NA around towards my SR and I also managed zone 8 and even TI0RC. 80m was also reasonable and XE1QQ was welcome. 40m was still poor. I got to 20 and 15 much earlier and tried to make inroads into a serious multiplier deficit with limited success. Being on earlier probably explained a better JA opening on 20m on Sunday for me. Managed one JA on 15. Similar funny marginal / ESP strength openings on 10m – even heard HS0 but had no chance of a QSO. 20 / 15 to NA in the afternoon although I spent time looking east on 20m and managed some missing mults.

40m seemed a bit better Sunday evening once 20m had died but the QRM was it’s usual horrible self. I was getting going on a couple of nice frequencies only to get stomped on by RW***  or DF*** Signs of a NA opening were developing when I was told that GM6NX had opened up 100Hz away from me. I could not hear him but could hear his callers…………….

The last couple of hours were rather flat and I ended up trying to squeeze some QSOs out of 40m after 160 and 80m proved useless.

I ended up with the highest QSO count I have yet managed in SOAB in this contest, and the first time over 5k, but was disappointed with my mult score this time round. I seemed to miss / fail to find an awful lot of stuff on several bands this year and there were many mults I just never heard, period! This was not for the lack of trying, or a tactical change. I was maybe ‘unlucky’, obviously sometimes not on the correct band at the correct time, and I suspect those QSOs on 10m were quite expensive in terms of time and where else I might have been............but all that is the fun, challenge and reward of CQWW SOAB unassisted.

It was great to get back on in CQWW and, fingers crossed, I manage the CW leg too.


BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   AVG

--------------------------------------

  160   267  12  48   2     335  1.25

   80   827  20  75   9    1227  1.48

   40   935  29  92   5    1300  1.39

   20  1700  32 101  11    3623  2.13

   15  1216  29  95  11    2754  2.26

   10   149  12  46   1     214  1.44

--------------------------------------

TOTAL  5094 134 457  39    9453  1.86

======================================

       TOTAL SCORE : 5 586 723

Best wishes,

Keith GM4YXI (GM5X)


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